Question: My ex-husband and I have joint custody of our two children, who will turn six and eight this summer. What the lawyers call “primary physical placement” is with me, and my ex-husband gets visitation every other weekend, part of the holidays, and one month during the summer.

Both of us work, and he pays me child support. We had been getting along pretty well until last week when his lawyer told him he doesn’t have to pay me the child support during June when he has the children. Our divorce papers don’t say anything about this. Am I supposed to pay a lawyer to make sure that the $550 my ex owes for June is paid? By the time I get through paying the lawyer, I won’t realize anything, and will probably lose money. Is my ex allowed to just cut my support?

Question: I pay my wife more than $1,000 each month as child support. I am supposed to have the children with me for six weeks this summer. Am I obligated to pay her for the time they are with me, and I am responsible for all of their expenses?

Answer: Whether or not there is an abatement of child support during summer visitation is a question that rears its ugly head about this time every year when vacations roll around. And the answer, we are afraid, depends on the state in which you live and the language of your support agreement or the court’s decree.

In some states, like Wyoming, for example, the legislature has passed laws whereby a non-custodial parent who owes child support can file a claim for “abatement of support” anytime he or she has physical possession of the child or children for more than 15 consecutive days. This means that unless the support order provides to the contrary, the child support obligation due will be reduced by one-half of the daily support obligation for each day the visiting parent has physical custody of a child for whom support is due, so long as the time period continues for 15 or more consecutive days.

By abating one-half of the daily support rate, the Wyoming Legislature struck a balance between the reduced costs to the custodial parent while the child is not there and the increased costs to the non-custodial parent during periods of extended visitation. In some other states, the Child Support Guidelines allow abatement by one-half during extended visitation, but not full abatement, because the custodial parent still has the obligation to maintain a residence for the child even when the child is not physically there.

On the other hand, in other states, deviation from the Child Support Guidelines in this fashion is not allowed under these circumstances; however, where there are shared parenting arrangements – that is, each parent has court-ordered visitation with the children overnight for more than 109 overnights each year – and a parent with visitation does not exercise it, the other parent may ask the Court for a reversion to the guideline support amount without the shared parenting adjustment.

SoloFact: If you want to make arrangements to reduce support during extended visitation, you should include those provisions in your agreement. If not, don’t include any provisions, but be forewarned that you should ask your attorney the law of your state before the final gavel falls.